Giffords' Astronaut Husband and His Twin Keep Personal Lives Private

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HOUSTON — NASA's identical twin astronauts, Mark and Scott Kelly,
are drawing a line between their professional and private lives
in the face of intense media interest in Mark's wounded wife,
congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

This week the astronaut brothers canceled scheduled interviews
with reporters to preserve a measure of privacy about the family
crisis.

Giffords, D-Ariz., is
recovering after being shot in January outside a Tucson
grocery store during a constituent meeting. Mark Kelly decided
last month to continue training as the commander of the space
shuttle Endeavour on its final mission, set to launch April 19.

Kelly and NASA yesterday decided to cancel a series of one-on-one
interviews with reporters scheduled for today (March 24). The
interviews with reporters are traditionally arranged for every
shuttle crew member to discuss an upcoming mission.

"I anticipated that I would likely get a lot of questions about
her, which I wanted to address just in a statement," Kelly told
reporters today in a press conference here at NASA's Johnson
Space Center.

"I'd like you to respect the fact that this is about STS-134 and
it's not about my wife's recovery," Kelly said. "I'll be happy to
talk about that, but that's at a later time and we can coordinate
that through Gabrielle's office."

The astronaut did provide a brief update on his wife's condition
before steering the session on to the spaceflight at hand.

"She's doing remarkably well. She's improving every day," Kelly
said. "She's starting to walk, talk more every day. I see her
every morning before I go to work and when I come home from work
at the end of my day."

Giffords was shot in the head Jan. 8 by a man who opened fire
during her meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store.
Six people were killed and 13, including Giffords, were wounded.
A 22-year-old Tucson resident, identified as the gunman by
federal prosecutors, is being held on various charges.

Brotherly bond

Kelly's plea for privacy came two days after his
twin, Scott Kelly, canceled interviews that were meant to
shine a spotlight on his own recent stint as commander of the
International Space Station's Expedition 26 mission.

In Scott's case, the media representatives were told not to ask
about Giffords but apparently didn't listen. After completing
three interviews, Scott called off the rest.

"Every one of the interviews did open up with a question or two
related to his sister-in-law's condition," NASA spokesman James
Hartsfield told SPACE.com. "Scott did patiently outline to them
that he wasn't going to answer those questions … However, every
one of the three interviews he was conducting did start out that
way, and he had to repeat himself, and after three he informed us
that he did not want to proceed with them."

"Mark Kelly has expressed concern, based on his past media
experience and the recent experience with his brother Scott
conducting interviews, about his ability to have media attention
focus on his mission in the interviews rather than his personal
family matters," Hartsfield said.

An unexpected spotlight

The Kelly brothers are the world's only set of
astronaut identical twins, a fact that already gave their
respective missions an extra boost of publicity.

At one point, Scott and Mark were expected to meet up in space
when their missions overlapped. However, delays to another
shuttle mission – this month's final flight of shuttle Discovery
– pushed back Mark's flight until after Scott's return to Earth,
which occurred March 16.

The attack on Giffords and her subsequent recovery efforts have
thrust both astronauts into an even brighter spotlight.

While in space, Scott Kelly fielded repeated questions from
reporters on Earth about how he was handling the news about his
sister-in-law while he was in space. After landing, a NASA
photograph showed him wearing a wristband in honor of Giffords.

Mark Kelly participated in several press events to provide
updates on his wife's condition, first at the hospital treating
her and later during a NASA press conference in February when he
announced his decision to stay on as commander for Endeavour's
final mission.

Mark also posted messages on Facebook and on Giffords' website
thanking the public for the outpouring of support for his wife
and the other victims of the Tucson shooting spree.

Yesterday Mark Kelly addressed reporters while accompanied by the
five crewmates who will accompany him on Endeavour's final
voyage.

The astronauts will haul supplies and an astrophysics experiment
to the International Space Station. Their two-week journey will
be the last flight for Endeavour, which is being retired this
year along with the rest of the NASA shuttle fleet.

NASA plans to fly one more mission after Endeavour's, then close
its 30-year-old space shuttle program. The shuttle Atlantis is
due to deliver more supplies to the International Space Station.
That final mission, STS-135, is slated to launch in June.

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